Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Texas Senate Approves Jessica's Law

HB 8 ("Jessica's Law") passed the Texas Senate today. The legislation will now go to a conference committee to work out differences with the House, then soon make its way to the Governor's desk, who is almost certain to sign it. This politically driven change to the law enacts super-tuff and extremely costly penalties for child molestation cases that in this writer's opinion probably make victims less safe.

Though prosecutors and victims rights groups opposed the legislation because it would make victims less likely to report crimes, and give predators incentives murder victims, that didn't seem to matter to Lt. Gov. Dewhurst and company who strongarmed votes for the most draconian version of the legislation. This is a disappointment, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the law altered by future Legislatures when the obvious unintended consequences - of which members were well informed - begin to manifest in the real world.

Kudos to Sen. Rodney Ellis who cast the lone "no" vote on the legislation.

Luckily for the state of Texas, Dewhurst has been forced to significantly change the bill in order to get enough votes to pass it out of the Texas Senate. At the urging of many outspoken senators and prosecutors, a revised proposal calls for a minimum 25-year sentence only for enhanced cases of aggravated sexual assault, when the crime includes particularly egregious circumstances like kidnapping or use of a weapon or violence.

This change was critical to win support of prosecutors. Since approximately 80 percent of child sex abuse involves family members, an automatic 25-year prison term would dissuade families from seeking prosecution. "If a child knows that Uncle Harry is going to prison for 25 years, she's not likely to testify," a lawmaker explained to me.

Likewise, prosecutors did not want an automatic death penalty, and even questioned its constitutionality. The latest draft of the bill, sponsored by Bob Deuell, gives prosecutors the option of life without parole or the death penalty upon the second conviction for an enhanced aggravated sexual assault.

Hart wrote that support for the bill in the Senate, though broad in the end, was only an "inch deep," and that "clinging to a false issue" had cost the Lieutenant Governor significant political capital.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

What concerns me about the bill (among other things) is the unlimited SOL of indecency with a child.

This crime is usually not a touching crime and could even be from a distance. It is also usually a he said/she said crime. What is to prevent a "victim" from popping up 50 years in the future and suddenly remembering that he/she saw (at the age of 16) that now rich man masturbating in his car many years ago? Or perhaps seeing him urinating on the side of his house? Nothing.

Coming from a divorce where my attorney said that now over 50% of all contested child custody cases claim child abuse in one form another... this race to severly punish all child issue crimes with no time limits is scary to the max.

To be honest, I sometimes wish I never had kids (they are grown now anyway) and I certainly stay away from strangers kids at all costs now. And that means if I go into a public restroom and a kid is in there, I wait till he leaves... and everyone else should too.

It is more important to protect children than to exact punishment from thoese who would harm them. I believe it was Bob Dylan that said "If you want to live outside the law, you must obey it." Our legislators have lost sight of the fundamental goals of criminal law.

No wonder people have no respect for law enforcement. The laws being enforced are horrible!

anon @ 9.42 ~ that's exactly the point Grits has been making: this law WILL NOT protect kids.

Random child abductions are very rare, parents on the whole are pretty good at keeping their kids safe from strangers. What parents are not that good at (and I'm a parent too) is keeping their kids safe from drugs, alcohol, people who run red lights or speed in built up areas, teenage pregnancy, obesity etc etc

What this bill will do however, is keep DA's and defense lawyers quite busy. And with no more statute of limitations, it's like a forever gravy train of money - all in the name of "protecting our children" ala runaway DA's like the recent Duke case.

The Texas Legislatures response to this bill gives us a clear pulse of where they stand...more than willing to bend to political pressure and operate from the fear of retribution from those they work with at the Capitol.

In the face of victims groups, social workers, and prosecutors saying no to this bill they said YES. It was Dewhurts' baby and he wants to live in the mansion around the corner. The House of Representatives proved they are just as scared of Craddick, caving in the same way. Like a bunch of boys trying to see who has the biggest muscles.

Our Senators and Representatives don't seem to represent us or be willing to stand up for good policy for our state. One would think that David Dewhurst and Speaker Craddick elected them to office.

Kudos to Senator Ellis for having the courage and the few in the House of Representatives as well.

GfB Writer Bios

Subscribe by email

Support Grits via Donation

Donate to Grits via PayPal. Grits is a hobby, but donations help cover newspaper subscriptions, periodic travel, open records fees, etc.. Donate if you can! When I have resources, the blog can do more stuff!

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"

- Rob Patterson, The Austin Post"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas."

- Texas Public Policy Foundation

"Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right"

David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"

"I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."

Kim Vickers,Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationGrits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."

Maurice Chammah,The Marshall Project"unrestrained and uneducated"

John Bradley,Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau

"our favorite blog"

- Texas District and County Attorneys Association Twitter feed"Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas."